Saturday, 23 August 2008

Simultaneous Green

What a difference a sign makes. The sign on the left is increasingly common at junctions in the Netherlands. It indicates that cyclists will get their own green phase at the lights and that when the light is green they can travel in any direction across the junction, including diagonally.

What's more, cyclists usually get two green phases per complete sequence of the lights, meaning that they wait for less time behind a red light. This leads to cyclists getting past the lights quicker than drivers. It works very well indeed.

A couple of days ago I made a video of riding across such a junction when I visited Groningen. Also there is a video of the same junction made by the fietsberaad, the Dutch panel of experts in cycling, which demonstrates the same junction from different angles.

In our city crossings are upgraded and improved, and while their working on the crossings for motorists, they simultaniously update the ones for bicyclists. Most of the crossings are now fitted with simultaneous green lights for bikes, a countdown at every light showing how long you have to wait and some crossings even have loop detectors for bikes now (no pushing buttons anymore).

Anneke, I'm surprised that you say "no pushing buttons anymore", as this suggests you used to have to do so.

Perhaps I've mainly ridden in places where the upgrades have already happened, but in my experience here most crossings I come across generally have both buttons and a loop detector.

Not pressing the button makes no difference unless the loop detector is faulty and doesn't pick up your bike.

If nothing else the post with the button provides a handy thing to hold onto while waiting...

It is a source of irritation to cyclists in the UK that loop detectors in the roads often pick up cars but not bikes. So, you ride up to a red light and wait, and wait, and wait, until a car comes up behind and then the light will go green. It's one of the many minor problems that cyclists face with infrastructure designed for cars.

Hey David, I was reading some of the archive posts, so I only just saw your reaction. Anyway, yeah we used to have buttons everywhere, the last time the bikepaths (and the roads btw) were upgraded was in the 80s I guess. Not very recently anyway, so I think the buttons are from the time from before the loop detectors, and haven't been improved since. It's not bad at all to have buttons, I mean, how much effort does pushing a button cost, after all. Loop detectors are better of course.

Study Tours

You've read the blog, now see everything with your own eyes. Since 2006, hundreds of people have joined us on our Cycling Study Tours.
First hand experience is better than reading. Book a tour to see how policy and infrastructure have attracted people from all walks of life to cycle:

Support this blog

Thousands of hours of work have gone into compiling the information on this blog but we do not receive grants and we do not ask for charity to support us.

You can help to make further blog posts possible by buying proven bicycle components from us:

Copyright and Licensing

This blog is free of charge to read and for most individual usage including reasonable "quoting" of its contents. However, neither the text nor the photos on this blog are in the public domain. To find out more, please read our copyright and licensing information.

Non-sponsored links

Experience for yourself how policy and infrastructure in Assen and Groningen have led to the high cycling modal share in this area:

If you like this blog please support us so we can continue. We sell quality bicycle components:

Cycling holidays in Assen and Drenthe, where this blog is based:
All the youtube videos from this blog: